Successclick, Domain Monetization

REGISTRARS THAT NEED TO BE EATEN

Okay, I’m starting off 2008 with my very first official rant. Why would a laid-back guy like myself be fuming? Because I’ve spent a lot of my holiday season trying to transfer out domains that I bought in online auctions from the crappy registrars that submitted them. The auctions themselves went smoothly, and I bought some nice domains for good prices, but the current registrars of many of these domains are so dishonest, unwieldy, and prohibitive of allowing you to manage your domains, their licenses should be dropped.

I’ve wasted time and raised my blood pressure trying to figure out how to even UNLOCK a domain name at some of these registrars. Once I get past that, I then have to crawl through one-word cryptic links to reach a page that uses unfamiliar terms to try and “guide” you to retrieve the authorization code (EPP code). These registrars are built to do one thing, in my opinion, and that is to get you to buy a domain, and either renew it at a hefty fee, prevent you from transferring it out, and hope that you will give up in frustration and let the domain expire so they can resell it again through the auction site.

It’s what I call “The Garbage Registrar Cycle”. You buy a domain on an auction. The domain is registered at some low-level registrar that barely has changed its graphic layout in five years. Then you get an email when the domain is coming up for renewal, and they want you to pay them $35 for renewal. You try to log into the account to transfer it to a more respectable (and reasonably priced) registrar. However, the garbage registrar has changed your original login name (obtained from the auction site default account info) by removing one character, so you can’t use your login or standard login name that the auction house usually sends out for you when you win the domain. Then you ask the garbage registrar to send you your login name and password. Some of them send you back a “registry code”, which basically means nothing in the effort of transfering your domain out. Then you ask again to help access your account. Eventually, if you’re lucky, you’ll get a legitimate login name and password, go login, and then struggle to find out how to access your domain/s and change their lock status and obtain the auth code for transfer.

The garbage registrar takes its time in answering your support request. The days are passing by quickly, and the expiration date is gaining on you. You finally get some convoluted directions from support, just a few days before the domain is going to expire. You rush into their management module, attempt to unlock the domain and retrieve the auth code, and submit the information to your gaining registrar.

Maybe you’re lucky and the domain name gets transferred. Maybe you also think that if your time is worth at least $50 an hour, spending three hours trying to transfer out a domain name that may only be worth $100 isn’t a good way to manage your time.

Then you just say, “F*ck it” and let the domain expire. Then the registrar sends the domain to the auction house to be bid on again, and the “Garbage Registrar Cycle” starts all over again, with another sucker bidding on the domain and winning it.

I would love to name names of these Garbage Registrars — but I think most of us know which registrars SUCK so badly they stand alone as the most frustrating and unethical part of our business.

Currently, I’m moving domains to Snapnames Private Auction services and enjoying decent transfer prices to their registrar. That means I’m doing my part to make buying my domains an easy process for the buyer. Now if Snapnames would require all of their expiring domain providers to transfer their domains to their registrar if they want to participate in Snapnames auctions (to centralize the domain registrar source and police the transfer process), I would be truly grateful and definitely more excited about winning a bid on a domain in their auctions.